Veterinary hospitals provide many medical services during the course of caring for a patient. Pet insurance is one of these many services. Often, patients have health problems that require veterinary care above and beyond what a pet owner is prepared to pay out-of-pocket at the time services are provided, even when they have pet insurance coverage. The pet owner files a claim after leaving the veterinary practice and receives notice of coverage, eligibility and payment, if applicable, from the insurance company. These processes and systems are cumbersome and do not allow a pet owner to rapidly obtain or utilize pet medical insurance.
For the veterinary hospital, existing systems do not provide them with real-time, accurate information about the status of a pet's insurance policy, eligibility of coverage, status of a claim, or facilitate the offering of pet insurance coverage. Most systems are not responsive enough to effectively aid a veterinary practice in managing their practice, frustrating the hospital and the pet owner with the delay.
Additionally, due to the delay in claims processing and the need for the pet owner to cover the expense of medical services at time of service and prior to being reimbursed by the insurance company, the hospital must often provide alternate courses of care that are less expensive, more affordable for pet owners. This is counter-intuitive to the purpose of pet medical insurance coverage.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a pet medical insurance system and method to overcome the above limitations and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed. It is also within the scope of the disclosure to facilitate medical coverage and services at veterinary hospitals outside of pet insurance, such as wellness plans, radiology and lab, and similar services provided at veterinary hospitals utilizing the same system and method implementation.